


strange things did happen here

by WelcomeToTheBadlands



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hunger Games Setting, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Archery, Badass Rey, Ben Solo Needs A Hug, Cuddling & Snuggling, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hunger Games-Typical Death/Violence, Idiots in Love, Love Triangles, Rey Kenobi, Rey Needs A Hug, Sarcasm, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-14
Updated: 2019-03-14
Packaged: 2019-11-18 04:52:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18113672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WelcomeToTheBadlands/pseuds/WelcomeToTheBadlands
Summary: The Hunger Games take the lives of twenty four children every year.





	strange things did happen here

**Author's Note:**

> This is AU heavily inspired on the books but will also diverge a lot after this first chapter

When Rey wakes up, her side of the bed is cold. She stretched out, seeking the warmth of Jessika but only finding the rough cover of the canvas blanket instead. She must’ve climbed into bed with their adoptive mother. She looked up, found her in the bed next to her, and knew that of course she did. It was the day of the Reaping. Rey sat up in bed for a moment, waking herself up as she tried to ignore the dread that was threatening to overtake her. That’s when she notices that the mass of fur moves, and sees the  world’s  ugliest cat standing there. Keeping guard. 

Rey rolled her eyes and got up as the cat hissed at her, threatening to take a swipe if she gets too close. That cat was the most useless being in all eternity, couldn’t even catch squirrels to eat. Sometimes Rey thought that she would have been better off drowning the cat in a bucket of water when Jess had brought him home. The closest Rey ever got to liking that cat is when she came back with meat and fed it the scraps, when that happened there was no hissing. 

Rey grabbed her hunting boots and pulled them on before going outside.  District Twelve  was filled with trees that covered the poorer  part of the District that Rey was a part of . That gave her enough cover to get to the fence where they barred people from going to hunt. There was a small link in the fence that was weak and didn’t have plasma flowing through it. Rey laid flat on her stomach and got through the small opening before she ran through the woods until she was out of sight. 

Then she went her usual route and ducked behind a tree, where a rotting hollow log housed a bag that had her bow and arrows in them.  Hunts each day were par for the course, usually Rey just looked for enough rabbits to feed the girls in the orphanage but not enough to look conspicuous to the security guards that ran the place. Today, the hunt was different. The  Reapings  were coming and Rey always tried to bring home more, just in case she was the one that was going to get chosen. 

She was sixteen so far and had slid by unnoticed, which she didn’t mind.  “What are you going to do with that when you kill it, Rey?” The deer flees, and Rey misfires her bow. She looks back to Poe, who’s smiling that same asinine smile that he had had since he was a child. 

“Damn you, Poe.” She clambered down from the tree as he came over. 

“Oh, come on, Rey, you know that the guards would catch you if you killed that thing.” Rey knew that he was right, but that still didn’t keep her from feeling like she had lost an incredible amount of game. That’s when she noticed the long string of squirrels and rabbits. “Caught these for you, also got us a little treat for today. I thought that you deserved it. Especially after today.” He wouldn’t tell Rey what the treat was but her stomach was already ready for it. 

The two of them walked into the meadow that they always hung by when they were done hunting together. They sat down and Poe brought out his treat. It was a perfect loaf of bread, still hot to the touch. “Oh my god,” Rey was greedy, she wanted to get the first bite, but Poe cut it properly and spread the butter on before he let her have it. “How did you get this?” He gave her a look. She knew what he did. He went in to pull his  Tessera .  Tessera  was the ballot that put your name in the Hunger Games four more times in exchange for food. 

“Poe, you shouldn’t have.” Poe was already eighteen, it was his last year in the games. His name was in forty-two times already. 

“Hey, might as well have one good meal before the both of us possibly die.” He said. Rey decided not to mention it anymore as the two of them ate the bread and butter and the blackberries Rey found on a bush close by. They both knew that they needed to head back, neither of them wanted to. “What if everyone just stopped watching?” 

“That’s not going to happen.” She told him. “One could dream but it’s not going to happen. You know that too.” She didn’t listen to the rest of the talk. That was treasonous. “I have to get back to Jess.” 

***

Rey went through the Seam before she went back home, Poe smuggling the squirrels. Rey knew that Poe could get the most in exchange for the meat. Leia, a small and kind old woman who had always been as nice as she could to the less fortunate in the town was there. They went to hers first, Rey wanting to get more bread and Poe being partial to the soup. Leia gave Rey three loaves of bread without charge. “You don’t have to do that,” She said. A pang of guilt entered her chest as Leia smiled at her. 

“Of course, I do, child.” She said. “The both of you deserve so much more than I have to offer.” 

“Leia, what you have to offer is enough.” When Leia was younger, the boy that she loved was chosen for the Hunger Games. Han Solo. He was the only victor of District Twelve to date, but ever since, he had left her pregnant and hadn’t even bothered to see his son. Leia got up, taking off the pin that she kept on her lapel every day. It was a pin that her mother had given to her.  One of a  mockingjay . 

“I want you to have this, child.” She said. “Good luck.” With that ominous send off, Rey went home. Right on time too, Jess was screaming and Rey ran to comfort her. 

“It’s okay,” She hushed the girl. “It’s okay. It was just a dream.” She was no doubt dreaming about the Reaping, and no one could blame her. 

“I was the one that was picked,” Jess heaved, “I was...” 

“Hey,” Rey said, her voice was stern but enough to get Jess to snap out of whatever she was in. “Hey, stop. That’s not going to happen.” She pushed Jess away to see her face. It was  Jess’  first year, and there was no way that she would last in the Games if she was picked. Rey understood her terror, but she wasn’t going to let it take her over. “Everything’s going to be fine.” She told her. “I promise you it will, okay?” 

“Okay,” Jess said. “Okay.” The other girls from the Orphanage were already getting dressed for the Reaping, rolling their eyes at  Jess’  outburst as they came in and out of the room. Rey would beat them all up if she could. They all had the same outbursts at her age, they should be more sympathetic. Rey was the only one who came to comfort her though.

***

They got ready for the Reaping in silence, Rey told Jess to tuck her shirt in and the two of them got ready to go up to the main courtyard where they were about to be separated by age. Jess was starting to panic again. “It’ll be okay,” She said. “It’ll be okay, just stand there and wait for the minutes to go by.” 

“What if-?” 

“Don’t think what if, just go.” Rey told her. Rey pushed Jess out, and Jess went. Rey’s heart ached as she waited for the announcer to come out and spout bullshit about how the Games were meant to keep unity between the Districts. That was always stuff that she learned to tune out so that she didn’t end up rolling her eyes and getting beat. Something was different this year though, she hung on every word as the propaganda played. 

She found herself searching for Jess in the crowd, relieved that she was only about five rows in front of her. That made her feel a little bit easier, and she waited. The announcer was bright and bubbly, saying the rules of the Hunger Games. The rules of the Hunger Games are simple. In punishment for the uprising, each of the twelve districts must provide one girl and one boy, called tributes, to participate. Twenty-Four tributes were picked to be trapped in an outdoor area to kill each other. 

When the rules are done its time for the girl and boy to be picked. The crowd quiets and you can almost hear a pin drop. The announcer crosses the stage to call the first name, circling her name in the bowl of papers before picking one. The name is Jessika  Pava . 

***

For a split second, Rey felt like she was eight again. Watching her mother and father get beat to death by the security guards for protesting the fact that her real brother had been picked to go to the Hunger Games. No one had volunteered for the crippled boy because at the time, Rey wasn’t old enough to be put in the Reaping. Rey didn’t say a thing, feeling like she wanted to scream, but she couldn’t. She was petrified in fear, watching as people screamed and her mother cried as her father was  tazed . Little did she know that she was next, and Rey was the only one left. Her brother died in the Games that year. 

She wasn’t going to let that happen again. Rey surged forward, pushing into the crowd. People weren’t moving out of the way fast enough. Rey also remembered the time that she was in the woods, she was high up in a tree, waiting for motion so she could bring food home to the Orphanage. She fell asleep, then rolled over and fell ten feet. The impact making her breathless, her skull pounding. That’s exactly how she felt as she watched Jess start to make her way up to the stage. Before she could make it halfway there, Rey called out her name. “Jess!” Jess froze and turned around, the guards were starting to come towards Rey and push her back, but Rey pushed forward and got to her for a second before getting pushed roughly. 

That didn’t seem to work, didn’t deter Rey from making a scene. Jessika was too young, a small girl that was practically skin and bones and Rey wasn’t going to let her go through this. “I volunteer!” It was something that Rey knew that she couldn’t take it back. She pushed Jess behind her as Jess started to cry out in protest, “I volunteer! I volunteer as tribute.” There is an air of confusion in the crowd and on the stage, there hasn’t been a volunteer in District Twelve ever. 

The protocol was rusty. “Lovely,” Said the announcer. “Come up, come up here dear.” Rey told herself that she would not show fear. She would not cry. Jessika was out in the crowd somewhere, being held back by the head mother of the girl’s orphanage. Rey made her way upstage and answered that Jess was her sister when the announcer asked her. She felt the pin assure her that things were going to be okay. The boy tribute was going to be called next, and Rey found that she was wishing that it wasn’t Poe. 

Poe was the one person that she couldn’t kill. 

“Ben Solo,” 

Oh. 

***

When Ben was thirteen, he worked at his mother’s Bakery He had seen Rey laying down by a tree a little way out from the bakery. Something told him that there was something wrong, so while his mother was ringing people up, he took two thick loaves of bread and wrapped them in cloth. She had always been a survivor, especially after her parents had been beat up at the Square and killed. But sometimes even survivors need help. 

He didn’t approach her. He threw it out in her direction and went back in to help his mother get more food. His mother had yelled at him later when she found out that he had thrown out perfectly good bread, he nearly got a beating, until he told her what it was for. That’s when she apologized and told him that what he did was good. 

Now that he was here, he knew that he was a goner. Rey would be the one that was coming out of this, but if he had to die for Rey to win, he guessed that maybe District Twelve would finally have a good victor. He was dreading what was to come next. Especially when he knew who his mentor was. He was ushered into a room where he would say his goodbyes to his family. “Hello, dad.” He said. His father had been on the stage when the both of them were announced, but Ben hadn’t paid attention to him. Instead he paid attention to the people that were saluting them, silence filling his ears as he tried not to throw up. 

***

Rey waited as Jess came back with a few of the Orphanage girls to say their goodbyes. Jess was the only one who ran forward and gave her a hug, Rey didn’t want the little girl to let her go. She was crying, and that made it harder for Rey to keep it together, but she had to. She had to, for Jess. Even if she knew that she was walking to her death. 

“Rey, you can win, can’t you? You can get a bow and-,” 

“Yes, Jess. I can win.” She tried to shush her, “I’ll try my hardest, but only if you can promise to behave for me. Okay?” Rey went over ways to get money and stay out of trouble and made sure that she knew that she could ask Poe for help. Poe came by, but neither of them spoke. When it was time for him to leave, he gave Rey a hug, and then told her that she could do it and left. 

For once in her life, Rey thought that she saw Poe cry. From then she was ushered onto a train. Not one of the slow and loud ones that plagued her nights when they chugged along on the tracks, but a fast and sleek one that shone in the sunlight. It was one made by the First Order, the company that designed for the Capitol in the Hunger Games. Rey felt a little bit dirty as she watched Ben Solo stand right next to her. The two of them stepped onto the train and didn’t talk. Rey felt like she should say something to him, but she couldn’t. 

The both of them were probably going to die separately anyways. 

***

For the first hour, they were silence. It was frigid, and Rey felt the ice between them only thicken when the announcer,  Amilyn Holdo  came into the room. “Well hello,” She tells the two of them, “I bet that you’re hungry.” 

Rey was hungry, but she would never admit it to someone from the Capitol. Ben nodded, and  Amilyn  led her and Ben through the door where Rey is met by the most food that she’s ever seen. It’s clear that Ben hasn’t ever seen this much food either, despite the fact that he was the son of a baker.  Amilyn  acts almost like she’s the leader of a charity as she tells the two of them to eat up. 

Then Ben talks, “I’ve never seen so much food in my life.” Rey thought that maybe, being the son of a victor would keep him from starving, then she remembered just how shitty and unreliable Han Solo actually was. Rey only picked up her fork and knife and started to bring food to her plate quietly. 

She decided to try and stay detached, that it would be easier that way, then Ben spoke directly to her. “I’m sorry that you’re here.” He offered up lamely. Rey eyed him cautiously before offering her own condolences. 

“Don’t be sorry about something that isn’t in your control,” She said softly, pausing before continuing. “But I wish that you weren’t here either.” This would be so much easier if it wasn’t him. Not that it was going to be easy in the first place.


End file.
